Archive for December 4th, 2012

John’s Tree

Posted in Gardens and Collections on December 4th, 2012 by Matt Newman – 1 Comment

Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education.

I spend a lot of my time working with John Egenes in the Native Plant Garden. John is the gardener in charge of the area and his discerning eye doesn’t miss an inch of the vast new landscape.

I recently discovered that one of his passions is native trees. One day, during the height of fall foliage, he rattled off some of his favorite trees while pointing out the merits of both foliage and form. One of them–the pignut hickory (Carya glabra)–is situated just outside the Rock Garden, close to the rear service entrance.

The pignut hickory is a close relative to the famous pecan tree (Carya illinoinensis), responsible for your holiday pecan pie. But unlike the pecan, the nuts that the pignut provides are not so palatable. In fact, the name “pignut” is derived from the fact that the nuts are only suitable for swine. In nature, these are a valuable food source for many woodland creatures such as black bears, raccoons, squirrels, blue jays, foxes, rodents, and deer.
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Morning Eye Candy: Lifting

Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on December 4th, 2012 by Matt Newman – Be the first to comment

I feel like fall is the ideal time for sitting and observing–for taking it in without having to fill the empty space with idle chatter. Which leads me to today’s mission: find a bench somewhere in the Garden, and spend at least 20 minutes sitting quietly. As my high school guitar teacher used to call it, see if you can “lift” the individual components of nature’s soundtrack; that is, isolate a single bird’s song, or one tree’s creaking branches among the rest. Listen to the wind a while.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen